We just came back from our first trip as a family of 3 last week. And before I started blogging about our trip, I thought it was best to start with one horrible experience we had. The main reason being that I had been posting these stories from our stay at the Singtom Tea Estate, Darjeeling and I have been getting too many DM’s asking me for their details, tariff and my experience. A lot of my readers and friends alike have shown interest in booking the property for their upcoming trips. So I thought it was only fair that I write about some issues that we had, so that they can avoid those issues while still planning the trip.

So before we begin, I would like to declare that our stay with Singtom was purely collaborative. We were offered a 2 night stay, food and unlimited tea, and lastly, a pickup to and from Darjeeling in exchange of blogs, Youtube Videos, Instagram posts and story highlight and HD pictures.

On our confirmation mail, it was highly recommended that we use their car service and as soon as we set out for their estate, we understood why. You see, we were supposed to get a pickup from Darjeeling but on the day of our arrival both of their cars were away. I understood, because it was on me. I was supposed to confirm my pickup 24hrs ago, but we got caught up the day ahead and only connected with them around the evening.

We had been staying at Batasia Loop for 2 days before setting for Singtom so we asked our host at Batasia Loop to get a cab for us. It was a bit of an issue because a lot of drivers said they are not pro enough to go down that road. Finally we got someone to drop us at Rs2000. It wasn’t a long drive, but the rood is steep and curvy. It took us longer than expected but that was okay.

We left Batasia Loop after 12 and reached Singtom around 2.30 PM. The property was gorgeous and I really looked forward to our next couple of days there. Our room had no view but the room itself more than made up for it. Our food order was taken right away but it wasn’t until 4.30 PM that our food arrived. Over the next two days we realized that’s the norm here. But that’s not the issue we will talk about today.

So on our second evening at Singtom, I asked the manager in charge if we can get a drop at Darjeeling at 11AM. He asked me if our timing is flexible and I said yes. He asked if it would be okay if they pick us for the drop at 10AM instead as they have a booking at 12. I said it would. He finalized by saying he’ll let me know when the car will pick us up for the drop and with that we had our dinner and went to bed.

The next day my husband woke up at the crack of dawn and completed the packing all by himself. By the time I woke up at 8.30 everything was neatly packed except for the clothes I told him Seiji and I’d be wearing  on our way home. My husband had already showered and dressed. I placed the breakfast order, showered and packed my PJ’s while my husband got Seiji ready. By the time our breakfast arrived we were ready to leave. In the meantime I have been asking updates about the car and was repeatedly told that they’ll let us know.

10.30 roles down and our breakfast arrives. At this point our only tasks remaining was to get Seiji in his diapers, and then his trousers and shoes. It wouldn’t be until 9pm at night that we would get to change his diaper so that’s one thing I wanted to delay until our car arrived. 5 minutes to 11am and there’s a knock on the door. Our car has arrived. We quickly get Seiji in his diapers, trousers and then his shoes, take a last look around the room to recheck if we missed to pack anything and we got to the car.

A lovely doctor we befriended on our stay asked us for a selfie together and we quickly got some while our bags were being loaded into the car. I don’t believe we spent any extra minutes clicking the pictures or saying goodbye.

Anyway we leave. By 11.05 we are on the road. At 12 we still haven’t reached Darjeeling due to horrible traffic. I get a call from the manager asking us to leave the car because they have another booking for the car. At first I agreed because I was told we are not far from Darjeeling and that we will be stuck longer if we don’t leave the car.

But then we realized we were nowhere near Darjeeling. One of the hotel staffs were accompanying us on the passenger seat and he kept asking taxi drivers to drop us at Darjeeling. About 20 taxi drivers refused by then I guess. So the hotel staff got down from the car and we overheard their conversation on the phone. He was straight up lying to someone on the phone saying that we are not leaving the car. “Nehi utar rahe hai”. Yes, we were visibly upset. Mainly because despite every taxi driver refusing to drop us at Darjeeling, they kept halting every time they spotted a taxi, thus further delaying the trip. But we didn’t once say that we won’t leave the car. However, it was ridiculous of them to expect us to leave the car without getting another ride, especially with a toddler while it could start raining any minute.
I called a friend who is native and she said we won’t get anything from where we were and to please ask them to drop us at a nearby location where we can get a ride from.
But at this point the driver and the hotel staff refused to acknowledge anything we had to say and desperately tried to get us any taxi.

I get another call, this time from someone higher up and I’m said that I delayed the trip??? I guess someone has been lying but I’m not sure who. I clarify that I was flexible with my time and was in the car within 5 minutes after it arrived. Then I’m given a ‘friendly advice’ that if we want to make it to NJP by 8, we should leave the car right there and call our driver (the one who was supposed to drop us at NJP from Darjeeling) to pick us up from where we are stranded.

At this point my husband and I are trying to navigate if that’s even possible. We have a baby who’s tired and hungry by this point. And we had luggages and it started raining as well. Being stranded wasn’t an idle situation so we decided to call our driver if he can pick us up from there.

But before even we could do that, the car enters a parking lot and they starts unloading our luggages in the ground. Seiji picked up on our stress and started crying. At this point I start recording, our backpacks with expensive camera and gears being hastily unloaded on the ground before even we could get them ourselves.
The hotel staff approaches and gives me the number of a driver saying he called a driver to pick us up and without uttering another word they get in the car and just leaves us there stranded. They didn’t even have enough decency to wait until the said new driver arrives.

Luckily, the new driver arrived about 10 minutes later and said that he can’t drop us either. But he was decent enough to get us another driver who can. Let me tell you that by this point it’s raining like cats and dogs. The new driver was a decent guy and agreed to drop us at 1500rs . He went an extra step to make sure we got a shelter when we reached Darjeeling.

So that’s my experience using the estate’s car ride that they highly recommended we use. Honestly if they had been clear to us that they wouldn’t be able to drop us, we would be okay. If you are wondering if we got the train, yes we did. Only because we had tickets for 2 different trains that night and 1 was 35mins late. However, we lost the deposit to our reserved driver to NJP because we were late reaching Darjeeling and he said it was too late for him.

We had to find another driver with a hungry and sleepy child while it rained, with 4 luggages in tow. But the final driver to NJP made sure we got the train. We also got a coupe instead of a cabin at the delayed train. And like they say, all’s well when it ends well.

Also, if you are wondering if I’ll finish my deliverables? Yes, I’ll keep my words. And honestly, it’s a fact that apart from their car service and their delayed meal issue, their property and other services are pretty cool. And if I can talk about the bad, I do have to talk about the good as well. Besides, I worked really hard getting the footages and pictures and I honestly do not want to waste them 🤷🏻‍♀️.

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